"This title may sound strange, but it's actually not just a way to attract readers to the topic," writes one Maged Thabet Al-Kholidy in the Yemen Times, which we totally read all the time even if Maged hadn't decided to call his piece "There Must Be Violence Against Women." Because he's not kidding! Maged, who writes a column called "Through The Mind's Eye" thinks it's pretty preposterous for human rights organizations to urge battered wives and abuse victims to go to the police. What's his rationale?

According to them, women should complain to the courts about any type of violence against them. Likewise, should fathers and brothers complain to police if their daughters or sisters violate moral, Islamic or social norms?

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Um, probably not — though it could make for a pretty humorous 911 dispatcher exchange? Anyway, Maged's column is pretty unbelievable all the way through until you do some Googling and try to put it in context. See, the Yemen Times appears to be on some sort of crusade to "humanize" men who find themselves imprisoned for assault. And why do I get the sense that Maged is one of the paper's more, uh, enlightened contributors?

Well we found this in a "counterpoint" to a column he wrote last fall about whether men and women have equal "right" to be jealous:

One day, I argued with a Christian friend about jealousy. He told me that in their Bible there is nothing called jealousy, because it is regarded as a bad feature, bringing many problems. He justified that if there was confidence between husbands and wives, there would be no need for jealousy at all. I think, that dear friend, has a difficulty to differentiate between jealousy and suspicion.
Hence, we can say, a little of 'soft' jealousy isn't a danger. Instead, as it is known, jealousy is related with love. I mean, wherever love exists, jealousy also exists. In my opinion, moreover, it is an evidence of love.

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Yeah, and that future defense attorney to Drew Petersons the world over would be Lamis Abdulkarim Shuga, a woman. Both she and Maged are, incidentally, English language academics. Is it bigoted to wonder what gets written in the Arabic newspapers? Because Ayan Hirsi Ali is starting to sound like she's got a pretty good point.